Digital broadcasting communications systems in mobile environments are designed to transmit digital data over long distances. Data transmitted from broadcast towers may be augmented to assist with the handling of reception errors. For example, redundant versions of the data may be transmitted to provide additional opportunities for reception by mobile devices. As another example, the data can be augmented with check sums and forward error correction codes to assist with the recognition of reception side errors and the reconstruction of data following such errors. The inclusion of data related to such augmentations can reduce the effective data rate in communications system transmissions. Another method of reducing reception errors is to employ repeaters to increase the coverage of the transmitted signal.
Repeaters, or boosters, can be implemented to receive signals and re-transmit the signals at a higher level, a higher power, or both. Repeaters also can re-transmit signals onto the other side of an obstruction, so that the signal can cover longer distances. A repeater can be implemented as an analog device that amplifies an input signal, or as a digital device that amplifies, re-shapes, time-shifts, or performs a combination of these functions on a digital input signal for re-transmission. Repeaters do not attempt to interpret the data being transmitted. Instead, repeaters can decrease signal degradation in the digital broadcasting communications system by re-transmitting the received signal with additional power in a local environment. The boosted signal can improve the signal quality received by mobile devices operating with the local environment.